Poker Video:
Misc/Other
by Entity
(Micro/Small Stakes)

The Blueprint: Episode Seven

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The Blueprint: Episode Seven by Entity

On the three year anniversary of the launch of DeucesCracked.com, one of our founders, Rob "entity" Cole talks about what got him in the game.

About The Blueprint

In this series our founders and EPs talk about their experiences with poker throughout their lives and give advice to those at the grind or just starting out. There is something to be learned for new and experienced players alike.

iPOKErU

Why shouldnt I try to challenge myself to achieve the most the fastest?

relating to poker the only thing that can really prevent you beeing sucessfull is variance, assuming you are studying/working correctly on your game.

i think you should have every right to be frustrated on if you fail to achieve your goals. a consequence of that might be to realize is that what you do - wich is trying to play poker as well as you can - may not be the thing for you

Entity

Why shouldnt I try to challenge myself to achieve the most the fastest?

relating to poker the only thing that can really prevent you beeing sucessfull is variance, assuming you are studying/working correctly on your game.

i think you should have every right to be frustrated on if you fail to achieve your goals. a consequence of that might be to realize is that what you do - wich is trying to play poker as well as you can - may not be the thing for you

Patience isn't meant to be used as a crutch, or as an excuse for not trying, but it is something important to keep in mind constantly. You don't see many cases of companies becoming overnight success - there are years of blood, sweat, tears and failure that go into every success story out there. But when we retell the stories, both in poker and in business, people tend to gloss over the long, hard hours, and tell the stories of "I deposited $50 and never looked back" or - "we launched the site and never looked back."

Patience is meant to be a reminder that all you can control is your own actions - you can't control the results. While I think that getting frustrated/upset in general is pointless, regardless, you shouldn't be frustrated because you fail to achieve certain arbitrary targets (especially if those targets are financial). Setting a goal to have a $10k month and then getting upset if you don't make it doesn't make much sense - much in the same way that some people who have been playing for a year get upset because they're "still" playing the limit they were a month, six months, a year ago. Focus on what you can control - the effort that you put in - and if you think that you should change your behaviors because you haven't been playing well, go for it.

But always keep in mind that success takes time. Being patient helps you to see that what you thought the best goal for you was (playing $200NL, for example) - might not actually be that, though it's tough to see in the moment. Pixar's short-term goal at one point in time was to sell as many Pixar Computers as possible. They had the patience (even though it must have been maddening at times) to realize that their short term goals were necessary to their survival, but not necessary to their success. They had to struggle for 10 years until they were able to begin to realize their ultimate goal.

My whole point about patience is that I constantly see poker players who want everything, and want it now. The drive to succeed is necessary, but it promotes a certain narrow mindset which tends to focus on the short term and confuse it with the long term. It's important to be patient enough to realize that success is going to take time.

a consequence of that might be to realize is that what you do - wich is trying to play poker as well as you can - may not be the thing for you

Had to address this specifically as well, because it's very pertinent to the Pixar example. In this case, you're looking at short-term results (yes, a year's worth of results can be very short term) and are confusing those results with a goal. Your goal should be to play A-game poker 100% of the time. You'll need help (friends, poker study groups, coaches, etc) to move yourself toward that goal. The ultimate goal (equivalent to playing A-game poker) for Pixar was to advance the ability of computer animation, and to make movies - but their short-term goals were to sell computers. If they had abandoned the larger vision of what they wanted to do and allowed themselves to become frustrated at their inability to sell computers, they would have been abandoned as a company.

If you don't use twitter, start using twitter and following that list.

I'll post more as I come across it. The book "Founders at Work" is incredible and I'd highly recommend it to anyone, regardless of whether they're interested in running a startup or now. The same goes for "Delivering Happiness" (the story of Zappos) and "The Pixar Touch."

Entity

Unfortunately Reed removed one of his older presentations that was great, but I'd recommend looking at this: http://www.slideshare.net/reed2001/netflix-business-opportunity-5854575 and this essay as well. There are quite a few other profiles that have been written on him that if you look back, allow you to see how he's been planning all of this (streaming DVDs & moving into international markets) - step by step - since their inception as a company. Pretty cool stuff.

chewchew

I feel like this spoke to my heart and my current state, poker as a means to an end and maybe a metaphor or at least a part of life. The bit about the Pareto principle I found true as well, 20% A-Game plus luck makes the BBs, 80% is B-Game or when you might have rather done something else with your life.

Never forget what you actually want to do with your life, every second changes, there's only the current hand in life poker.And who am I? Don't know.

drunkjack

Great video, specifically I enjoyed hearing about networking with others. I have been a winning poker player for the past 4 years, but have always been hard headed in the fact that I don't think anyone can tell me a better way. Part of my 2011 goals are to participate more in talking/studying poker, and just giving it my best. Is there anyway, you can suggest specific books(like maybe your top 5) that may drive you into running a business correctly?

watch3r

Just a quick comment to say I really enjoyed this. I've watched it twice now and there's tons of interesting stuff to think about. I think for me, personally, it's one of the best vids I've seen here on DC.

Entity

Great video, specifically I enjoyed hearing about networking with others. I have been a winning poker player for the past 4 years, but have always been hard headed in the fact that I don't think anyone can tell me a better way. Part of my 2011 goals are to participate more in talking/studying poker, and just giving it my best. Is there anyway, you can suggest specific books(like maybe your top 5) that may drive you into running a business correctly?

Hmm. I'd probably recommend blogs as much as books at this time. In books the three I recommended earlier are all great - Founders at Work, The Pixar Touch, and Delivering Happiness - but they aren't really "how to" as much as "how we did" books. For blogs, Paul Graham is great, Chris Sacca can have some good things to say, really I'd just recommend following that twitter list and clicking every link in it, and if you read a paragraph or so and it sounds interesting, instapaper it so that you have it for the future (www.instapaper.com). Ipad + Twitter Lists + Reeder + Flipboard + Instapaper = years worth of reading.

Entity

Just a quick comment to say I really enjoyed this. I've watched it twice now and there's tons of interesting stuff to think about. I think for me, personally, it's one of the best vids I've seen here on DC.

YW. I'm really glad to hear that people like it. I was really nervous putting it out there as it's a) not 100% poker related and b) is very personal to me, but I felt that it was the best advice I could offer.

DrGrip

I just wanted to comment on the "social" part of the video. I originally came to DC after deciding to switch over to playing cash games from playing STTs exclusively for a couple years. After a couple of cash game sessions I said to myself "wow, I'm awful...I seriously need help" and after looking into several training sites I decided on DC mostly due to the fact that it was said to be the best site for LHE (and the affordability was spectacular as well). Initially, I just watched videos and lurked the forums. I think it took me a good couple of months before I got involved with posting. I can still recall one of my first posts here where I absolutely butchered a hand and some of the responses it generated and that's when it occurred to me how valuable it is to have people that you can bounce the play of a hand off of and you can trust their opinions.

I guess this is just a long winded way of saying "I came for the videos but stayed because of the people".

I also wanted to say that it's comforting to hear you say that you really weren't sure what you wanted to do, and you still aren't 100% certain. I recently had a lengthy conversation with a friend on this same subject. He's one of those lucky folks that realized what he really wanted to do with his life at an early age (he's a professional musician) and was fortunate enough to have built a good life for himself because of it. I, on the other hand, have bounced around quite a bit in terms of what I have considered doing because my interests are extremely varied so it's good to hear that even someone that is successful with what they are doing (and enjoys it) still has a degree of uncertainty with respect to if it's something they'll still be wanting to do further down the road.

Entity

I also wanted to say that it's comforting to hear you say that you really weren't sure what you wanted to do, and you still aren't 100% certain.

It's pithy, but I've always loved this lyric:

Donâ€™t feel guilty if you donâ€™t know what you want to do with your lifeâ€¦the most interesting people I know didnâ€™t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still donâ€™t.